Oatmeal Pan Cookies

RG&E Home Services Department used to offer free cooking demonstrations to the public. When Girl Scout troops came for a demonstration, these cookies would be served to them, recalls Joan Keyser, a home economist who worked for the department in the 1960s. I used a greased, 11-inch-by-17-inch jelly roll pan for this recipe, which did not specify a size or instructions about greasing.

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix melted shortening, brown sugar and eggs and beat well.

Sift flour with baking powder, add oatmeal, salt, cinnamon, raisins and nuts. Dissolve baking soda in water and add with dry ingredients to the first mixture.

Spread a thin layer in a shallow pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until color turns golden brown. Cut into squares.

Makes 30 pieces.

From the kitchen of RG&E

Imagine being a Rochester housewife in the 1960s. Your counter is lined with canisters filled with flour and sugar, you have a Sunbeam mixer and a cheery, freshly pressed dish towel hangs from the handle of your brand new, state-of-the-art, avocado green self-cleaning range. The doorbell rings, and there is young, friendly and helpful Joan Keyser from Rochester Gas & Electric’s Home Service Department, ready to teach you how to get the most from your new purchase with instruction booklets, recipes and an ever-friendly demeanor. You have been eagerly awaiting her visit, with a plate of cookies and lots of questions.

In this day and age when cooking blogs and YouTube instructional videos are the way many young homeowners learn how to use their major home purchases, it’s hard to believe that a job like Keyser’s ever existed. The career home economist, who worked at RG&E from 1961 to 1965, not only made house calls, but she also fielded consumer telephone questions, performed free cooking demonstrations and wrote recipe booklets on everything from canning and freezing to sending baked goods to overseas servicemen.

“RG& E sold appliances at the time,” as well as gas and electric service, explains Keyser, now a food stylist living in Victor who looks at least a decade younger than her 73 years. “Anyone who bought an appliance with RG&E would receive a home call if they wanted. We would go to their home with recipe booklets and do a load of laundry with them or check the refrigerator to make sure it was balanced. … I think people really liked that consumer education and service we provided. And we made many friends that way, too.”

While Keyser was out and about for much of her job, on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, she or one of her colleagues took center stage in the basement auditorium of RG&E’s East Avenue headquarters. That was when the company offered free kitchen appliance demonstrations. Audience members received a number when they entered, and at the end of the evening a drawing would send winners home with the boxed-up fixings.

There was never any thought to food contamination or illness in those days, Keyser says with a laugh.

There was, however, much concern over presentation. Keyser had to be vigilant that the gestures she used onstage did not distract or annoy her live audience. She gracefully cleaned cake batter from bowls in one fell swoop of the spatula, being careful never to strike the bowl. When she opened a refrigerator, she always made sure to stand to one side so as not block the view of the contents.

Even more amusing to today’s food television viewer, Keyser learned those demonstration techniques as an Ohio University home economics graduate student.

Creating recipe booklets was also part of her job. Holiday foods, salads, chafing dish specials, party planning for a crowd, kids’ cooking, and of course, cookies. The recipe she made most often was for oatmeal pan cookies, which were served with Spanish noodles when Girl Scout troops came for a demonstration. It’s a simple recipe reflecting simpler times, but nevertheless, the cookies are delicious.